Rooney free kick flattens Estonia

30
WORLD SPORT
Gulf Daily News Monday, 13th October 2014
Email: [email protected]
Kolkata beat Mumbai in new Indian league opener
KOLKATA: Atletico de Kolkata earned a convincing 3-0 victory over Mumbai City in the
inaugural match of the Indian Super League,
which began with an impressive opening ceremony yesterday.
Ethiopian striker Fikru Teferra put the hosts ahead in
the 27th minute from the top of the penalty area, with
Spanish duo Borja Fernandez and Arnal Llibert adding
goals in the 69th and 90th to ensure an easy win.
The Kolkata team, which is partly owned by Atletico
Madrid and has several Spanish players, dominated the
match throughout and could have scored more goals
but for some good goalkeeping by Mumbai’s Subrata
Paul.
Mumbai failed to impress in the absence of Swedish
midfielder Freddie Ljungberg, who missed the match
due to a calf injury, and French striker Nicolas Anelka,
who is serving a ban for a controversial goal celebration in 2013.
Earlier, the ISL saw a colourful start with a grand
opening ceremony attended by several Indian cricket
and film stars, some of whom have stakes in different
teams.
The ISL is particularly depending on cricket stars to
help market the tournament.
India cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni part
owns Chennaiyan, retired superstar Sachin Tendulkar
co-owns Kerala Blasters, and former captain Sourav
Ganguly and batsman Virat Kohli have stakes in Atletico de Kolkata and Goa.
Mumbai, Pune, Delhi and North East United are
the other sides in the eight-team league, organised by
IMG-Reliance in collaboration with Rupert Murdoch’s
Star India group and the All India Football Federation.
The ISL, which will see veteran stars like Alessandro Del Piero, Robert Pires, Luis Garcia, and David
Trezeguet in action, faces a tough challenge as it has
to compete with European league matches that are
beamed live across the country on satellite channels.
The tournament, which has raised expectations of
single-handedly raising the standard of football in
this country of 1.2 billion that is 158th in Fifa rankings, also has to contend with several franchise-based
leagues run in India including in cricket, field hockey
and kabaddi.
Rooney free kick
flattens Estonia
TALLINN,
Estonia: Wayne Rooney
EURO 2016 QUALIFIERS
n England’s Rooney
celebrates scoring
against Estonia
struck
with
a
73rd-minute
free
kick to give England a 1-0
win over Estonia in Euro
2016 Group E yesterday and
move to within six goals of
Bobby Charlton’s record tally of 49.
Rooney curled home a shot
from the edge of the box after
Raheem Sterling was fouled
and although goalkeeper Sergei
Parelko got his hands to the ball
it went in off the post.
The England skipper, playing
his 99th international, has now
scored 43 times for his country, one behind Jimmy Greaves
who is third on the all-time list.
Diego Costa scored his first
goal for Spain in seven appearances to help the defending
European champions ease to
a 4-0 win at Luxembourg and
rebound from their first qualifying loss in eight years.
The placid victory put Spain
back on track to qualifying for
the 2016 European championship three days after their 34game unbeaten streak in qualifying ended in a 2-1 upset at
Slovakia.
Skipper Alexandru Epureanu’s equaliser earned Moldova a precious 1-1 Euro 2016
qualifier draw against Russia in
Moscow.
Estonia were reduced to 10
men for the second successive
qualifier when their captain
GROUP C
1 Macedonia 0
(Sydorchuk 45+2)
Belarus
1 Slovakia
3
(Kalachev 79) (Hamsik 65, 84,
Sestak 90+1)
Luxembourg 0 Spain
4
(Silva 27, Alcacer 42, Costa 69,
Bernat 88)
Ukraine
GROUP E
0 England
(Rooney 73)
Lithuania
0 Slovenia
(Novakovic 33, 37)
Estonia
1
2
GROUP G
1 Montenegro 0
(Okotie 24)
Russia
1 Moldova
1
(Dzyuba 73-pen) (Epureanu 74)
Sweden
2 Liechtenstein 0
(Zengin 34, Dumaz 46)
Austria
Playing today:
(starting at 9.45pm, Bahrain time,
unless stated)
GROUP A
Kazakhstan v Czech Republic
(Starting at 7pm, Bahrain time)
Iceland v Netherlands
Latvia v Turkey
GROUP B
Andorra v Israel
Bosnia v Belgium
Wales v Cyprus
GROUP H
Croatia v Azerbaijan
Malta v Italy
Norway v Bulgaria
Ragnar Klavan was sent off
for a second yellow card after
49 minutes, but they frustrated
England for long periods before
the visitors scored to maintain
their perfect start to the campaign with a third successive
win.
Estonia’s best chance fell to
Sergei Zenjov in the first minute when his deflected shot hit
Joe Hart’s side netting, and
apart from a few isolated raids,
most of the match was played
in the hosts’ half.
England, though, lacked
accuracy in front of goal and
pace in attack until Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Sterling
were introduced in the second
half and although they dom-
inated the match, it was a far
from memorable match or victory.
Rooney had a great chance
to equal Greaves’s tally in stoppage time but shot straight at
Parelko.
Loew demands Germany fightback against Ireland
WARSAW: Joachim Loew has demanded
world champions Germany respond to their
shock defeat to Poland by beating Ireland tomorrow to get their Euro 2016 qualifying campaign back on track.
The World Cup winners find themselves fourth in
their qualifying group after being beaten 2-0 at Warsaw’s National Stadium on Saturday, suffering an historic first defeat to neighbours Poland in 19 matches.
Ajax striker Arkadiusz Milik gave the hosts the lead
on 51 minutes before substitute midfielder Sebastian
Mila netted a late second to inflict Germany’s first defeat in a qualifier for seven years.
The Republic of Ireland’s 7-0 drubbing of minnows
Gibraltar in Dublin earlier in the day means Germany
are now fourth in Group D with Poland top, Ireland
second and Scotland third.
Loew’s Germany has the chance to bounce back
when they host Martin O’Neill’s Ireland in Gelsenkirchen tomorrow, the same night Poland host Scotland.
Germany’s lack of finishing is of particular concern
to Loew as his team enjoyed 62 per cent possession,
yet could not finish any of their 22 attempts on goal
compared to just four by Poland, who scored from their
first real chance.
Disappointed
“We are obviously disappointed, you can’t really criticise the team apart from saying we were too
reckless with our chances,” admitted Germany’s head
coach.
“Our structure was good and we created a few opportunities, but Poland took their chances and scored
from their first shot on goal.
“We have to focus on Tuesday now, react well
against Ireland and gather our strength.”
Poland fans partied into the night after their historic
win.
“We are delighted, you could see that the supporters
have been waiting a long time for this victory,” said
Poland defender Lukasz Piszczek. “Our counter-attack
game worked really well and we took our chances, that
was the difference as the Germans didn’t use theirs.
“It means a lot for the country, but we need to stay
focused and concentrate on our next game on Tuesday.”
Germany have struggled since winning the World
Cup in Brazil in July.
They were humbled 4-2 by Argentina in an August
friendly, then laboured to a 2-1 win over Scotland last
month in their opening Euro 2016 qualifier.
They had their proud record of 33 qualifiers without
defeat – dating back to a 3-0 loss to the Czech Republic
in October 2007 – abruptly ended.
n Marquez claims
second MotoGP title
MOTEGI, Japan: Spanish
sensation Marc Marquez retained
his MotoGP championship
by finishing runner-up behind
countryman Jorge Lorenzo at the
Japanese Grand Prix yesterday.
Marquez, who last year became
MotoGP’s youngest world champion,
celebrated in flamboyant fashion,
accepting a ceremonial sword from
a samurai warrior and a golden
helmet from a kimono-clad beauty
emblazoned with his number 93 and
“world champion”, which he wore
on his lap of honour.
Lorenzo won at Motegi on his
Yamaha as he did last year,
finishing in 42 minutes 21.259
seconds to back up his victory
at Aragon two weeks ago, with
Marquez behind him and Valentino
Rossi third for Yamaha.
Marquez’s second place gave him
an unassailable gap of 82 points
from Rossi and Honda team-mate
Dani Pedrosa with three races
remaining this season.
n Levy lifts Portugal trophy
VILAMOURA, Portugal: France’s
Alexander Levy claimed a
second career title yesterday
when he won the Portugal
Masters after the third and final
round had to be abandoned due
to heavy rain in Vilamoura.
In a tournament already reduced
to 54 holes by lightning and
heavy rain, another deluge left
parts of the course unplayable
shortly after the final group had
teed off at 1pm. The result was
then called at 36 holes.
Levy, 24, carded rounds of 63
and 61 to finish with an 18 under
par total having been just one
of six players to complete their
second rounds on Friday.
His title yesterday came after
winning the China Open in
April. Belgium’s Nicolas
Colsaerts was in second place,
three shots off the lead.
n Bae takes four-shot lead
NAPA, California: South Korean
Bae Sang-Moon eagled the parfour 17th and birdied the final hole
to earn a four-stroke lead after the
third round of the Frys.com Open
in Napa, California on Saturday.
In just two holes, Bae turned
a tenuous advantage into a
commanding lead at the PGA
Tour season opener at Silverado
Country Club north of San
Francisco. He carded 65 for
16-under-par 200, while American
Zac Blair shot 69 for second place
on 12-under with his compatriots
Matt Kuchar (66), Brooks Koepka
(67) and Scott Langley (69) tied
for third at 11-under with Scot
Martin Laird (71).
n Feng triumphs
KUALA LUMPUR: China’s Feng
Shanshan ripped four birdies
and an eagle through the
final eight holes to shoot an
eight-under 63 and overtake
Pornanong Phatlum for victory
at the LPGA Sime Darby
Malaysia yesterday.
Feng, 25, notched a three-stroke
win over the Thai, who cooled
down the stretch just as Feng
was heating up, giving the 2012
LPGA Championship winner her
fourth Tour win.
Feng punctuated her strong finish
with an eagle on the par-five 16th
hole at the Kuala Lumpur Golf
and Country Club, eventually
finishing the tournament at
18-under 266 and taking home the
$300,000 first prize.
n Kipchoge wins in Chicago
CHICAGO: Kenyans ruled the
Chicago Marathon yesterday, with
Eliud Kipchoge leading a 1-2-3
men’s sweep and compatriot Rita
Jeptoo repeating as the women’s
winner. Kipchoge pulled away
over the last two miles for his first
major marathon victory, finishing
in 2 hours, 4 minutes, 11 seconds.
He was followed by Sammy
Kitwara in 2:04:28 and Dickson
Chumba in 2:04:32.